IT WON’T just be educational institutions on hand at the careers expo, with a number of businesses also promoting future employment opportunities.

One of those will be Hutcheon & Pearce, which has a high performance program for new apprentices and will have apprentice mentor Matt Duffy would be on hand to speak to students.

Group marketing manager Michael Casey said targeting students through a career expo was not common in the agriculture industry.

“But we need apprentices and we need them from regional areas so they are keen to stay there,” he said.

Apprenticeships are completed through Hutcheon & Pearce’s Top Gun high performance academy, which covers all aspects of the business to help it continue to grow and develop.

“For a week every year the apprentices come in, just like they would at uni (for O Week),” Mr Pearce said.

“We teach them about the company, teach them about roles and educate them to a point before they go off to their own location. Then they all go to TAFE together.”

This advertising feature is supported by the following businesses:

Apprentices study through Riverina Institute of TAFE Wagga Campus and its RIVTAFE Primary Industries Centre.

“If this industry wants to grow, the hardest thing for us is getting people in there,” Mr Pearce said. “It shows there’s a lot of direction you can go with these qualifications. You can go through your apprenticeship, do your trade and that can lead to other roles within the industry.”

A job at Hutcheon & Pearce could be much more than working on tractors

“One of the interesting things is we run two e-commerce industries out of Wagga,” Mr Pearce said. “We have one of the largest John Deere websites in Australia and it’s run out of Wagga.

“There’s massive growth in technology and precision ag is growing. With the technology coming into agriculture, you don’t know where you’re going to end up in the future.

“It’s a building block of what could be a career for life. You can go anywhere. This is just the beginning.”

Related